 In 1950, following the communist takeover of Bulgaria, he emigrated to the United States.A short time later, he was assigned pastor of Saint George Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Toledo, OH.In the late 1950s, Metropolitan Andrei (Petkov), leader of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia's Bulgarian Diocese of North and South America and Australia, petitioned to be accepted into the Russian Metropolia but had been rebuffed by them for unclear reasons, so in 1964 he petitioned and was approved by the Holy Synod of the Church of Bulgaria to be readmitted to the Bulgarian episcopacy.